Guv floats plan to attack lead, asbestos in schools

HARRISBURG >> Motivated by a growing struggle with health hazards in aging big-city school buildings, Gov. Tom Wolf unveiled a new $1.1 billion package Wednesday intended to help eliminate lead and asbestos contamination in Pennsylvania’s public schools.

Initiatives in the package include money in Wolf’s upcoming budget proposal and expanding existing grant programs. Smaller amounts, primarily in federal funding, could become available for replacing lead lines in public water systems, testing for lead in drinking water in schools and child care centers and removing lead paint from housing and child care centers.

One key element would expand the state’s primary bond-funded redevelopment grant program by $1 billion and make the money available for lead and asbestos cleanups in schools, although the proposal runs into a yearslong trend in the Republican-controlled Legislature of lowering the program’s borrowing cap.

Wolf, a Democrat, said the grant program is the fastest way he has of getting the money out to school districts, and said every Pennsylvania family and child deserves to live free of asbestos and lead.

“It’s unfortunate that Pennsylvania’s rapid growth took place at a time when lead and asbestos were widely used,” Wolf told reporters in his crowded Capitol conference room. “But we have a chance to correct the past and to build a brighter future for all of us.”